I had quite a lucky find the other day. It is this - the free poster given away in White Dwarf 100. I have long owned the issue, collected over ten years ago when McDeath could be bought for the price of a bus ticket (joke), but the poster was always missing.
Quite by accident, I managed to find a near mint copy and have just had the pleasure of looking at it properly in daylight. As Howard Carter might have said if he was into 1980s metal wargaming figures, it is full of 'wonderful things'.
I took the liberty of taking a few snaps of the poster and a couple of close ups of things that picqued my interest. Now, I am no expert of White Dwarf magazines but I know a fair bit. Some of the minis on offer on the poster were previously published in the magazine. Some of the miniatures shown are very famous, even today, such as the grey eldar who appeared in the Combat Cards Space War deck.
Others are not so well known, and it was towards those that I moved, camera in hand.
This first photograph contains six chaos dwarfs painted by the great Fraser Gray and are totally new to me. I cannot recall seeing these painted models elsewhere before and so it was a real pleasure to see them. The naked dwarf with the tentacle arm is just incredible! How did he do work of this standard with enamels!?
There is more of Fraser's incredible work elsewhere on the poster, including this fabulous orc with the equally fabulous painted 'ogre face' shield. Though it was the undead skeleton/wraith thing that caught my eye initially. I don't recall seeing the model before and the combination of the orangey red rags and bright greens punk hair is as madly '80s as it can get, and really sums up the 'in-house' painting style during this period.
Sure, some of the models here are very well known, and it is always nice to see the unreleased Combat Card dwarf wizard again. My eye was drawn to the zombie and the chaos sorcerer (based for Rogue Trader) as I cannot recall seeing either painted models before. Very good work on both.
As for the poster? Well, it is going to hang above my painting area as inspiration for a while. I am aware that the conservatory with all its sunlight isn't probably the best place to keep it in the long term, but it is there for now.
Now, here is a question to consider. What OTHER posters did GW and White Dwarf put out in the 1980s. I am certain that there is a Warhammer Third Edition one, as I have seen one or two for sale, but beyond that I cannot be certain.
Do any of you readers know?
Orlygg
